


From Pandora's Box....

by Werepirechick



Series: Tetrad Unity [4]
Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous Relationships, Angst, Blood and Gore, Cannibalism, Character Death, Doomed Timelines, Feral Behavior, Moral Ambiguity, One Shot, Other, So much character death, Technically?, Tragedy, don't read if you like happy endings, honestly everything here is just on fire and no one gets to be happy, you'll find none of those here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-23
Updated: 2016-09-23
Packaged: 2018-08-16 20:13:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8115895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Werepirechick/pseuds/Werepirechick
Summary: What if, Leo hadn't heard April's calls for help?
What if, the invasion had proceeded as planned?
What if, the world really had ended?
Where would fate have gone, which path would it have taken?
Who would the brothers have become, had they never reunited?





	

**Author's Note:**

> *pours gasoline over everything*  
> *lights a match*
> 
> "I swear guys, I really do love these kids."
> 
> *tosses match onto the ground*  
> *stands indifferently as flames consume my body*
> 
> "I just love hurting them even more." (°∀°)
> 
>  
> 
> (lets see what happens when I remove the one person who pulls this whole series/world together, shall we?)

 

 

April is walking with her father, the night that everything changes.

They’re going to her aunt’s house, for dinner. A rare thing, what with her father’s work schedule, and the chaos that her aunt deals with as an antique merchant. April is looking forwards to it, because it’s been a long while since she had a family dinner with both of them.

However, they don’t make it to her aunt’s house.

Out of nowhere, a white van screeches to a halt in front of them. From inside it, many identical men with emotionless faces come pouring out.

She screams, she struggles, but she can’t escape the iron grips of the men.

Along with her father, April is stuffed into the back of the van; the doors slamming shut behind her.

The van drives off, taking April and her father Kirby in it, and it vanishes back into the streets of New York.

No one hears her screams, so no one comes for her.

 

 

 

 

“Did you hear that?” Leo asks Raph, pausing on a roof top.

“Hear what?” Raph asks back, not pausing, and continuing his leap between roofs.

“I… I thought I heard someone calling out,” Leo says, looking down at the streets below.

“At this time of night? Why would anyone be out right now besides us?”

Leo shrugs, and lets the query end there.

They return to their running, their first time out of the lair on their own, and don’t spare a second thought to the sound Leo had thought he heard.

 

 

 

 

Elsewhere, two turtles, content with how their lives are, dart through tunnels below the streets of the city.

They are scavenging, as they always do. Creeping up from the safety of the underground, to retrieve food and supplies; taking what they need, taking what they want.

Trilling happily, Mikey and Donnie share between them the spoils of the evening. A particularly big haul of fruit, almost fresh enough that the red fruits are crisp on their tongues, instead of being purely soft and squishy.

They are happy, and don’t know anything other than the simple world view they have. They are brothers, they have each other, and the humans above their tunnels are dangerous. They don’t know anything else, and don’t want to know anything else. They are happy as is.

Some days later, Mikey is caught on film, though he doesn’t know what that is. He is recorded, posted to the internet, and the evidence of his existence is released to the world.

No one significant notices, no one sees his face in the video and thinks _brother_.

The commenters on the video posting claim it is a fake, and disregard it like they have so many other videos.

Mikey returns to his nest, greets Donnie with an apology for being gone so long, and their lives continue as normal.

 

 

 

 

Raph and Leo are not informed that their brothers are alive. They never see the photos of Mikey, so they never go looking for him.

They never find their brothers, and they never reunite.

Leo, Raph, and Splinter remain in their lair, as Mikey and Donnie remain in their nest.

The two halves of their family do not meet, and somewhere far from both their homes, April screams and screams and screams.

 

 

 

 

Without interference, the Kraang amass armies larger than any on earth. Their plans are not stalled, not crippled.

Everything goes according to plan, just as it should.

Kraang Prime has their prize, the human girl, bred from generations of careful manipulation. She is the key to earth’s destruction.

April is hooked into machines, machines that leave her body frozen and her mind at the mercy of a monster. No one hears her screams, not even her father; Kirby long gone, taken somewhere by the Kraang. April hasn’t seen him in so long, that she’s forgotten how many days have passed inside the metallic hell they’re trapped in. She won’t ever see him again, though she does not know that just yet.

Kraang Prime gives the order, to open _all_ the portals, and to release their troops onto the world.

They have the numbers, they have the technology. No one stands in their way as they open hundreds of portals all around the globe. The citizens of the world can only watch in horror as the armada descends upon them.

The military can put barely a dent in the over whelming show of force, each major country’s efforts failing one after another.

Somewhere in the vast network of New York City’s sewers, two sides of one family hear the beginning of the end.

One side takes themselves further into their hiding hole, finding shelter in the deepest parts of their territory as the world above burns. They curl around one another, knives on their hips and protective instincts screaming, and wait for the ground to stop shaking.

The other considers going above, considers trying _something_ to stop the destruction coming from the sky. In the end though, Splinter forbids them, and keeps his sons close in their home as the television reports the end of the world.

Neither of the halves can do anything, too unprepared, too ignorant to the grand scheme of things.

They hide, and they wait.

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, in a titanium trap that wraps her body and mind, April fights the control of the monster holding her captive.

She knows it’s plan, knows what is happening to the world outside her private hell right that moment. Kraang Prime mocks and jeers at humanity as it starts to drain her dry. It’s confident it has won, and is setting up its connection with the identical Technodromes around the world. In merely moments, it says it will use April’s powers to warp and twist the world into its image, a grand _new_ world for the Kraang to conquer.

April, mentally, spits in its face.

She is immobilized, and there is no one coming to save her. She is on her own.

But April, though ordinary in almost every sense, has a hidden, unpolished side of steel to her.

She is fierce, she is angry, she is powerful.

And she isn’t going to let this monster take her world. If they’re all going to burn, then the Kraang will burn with them.

Desperation and adrenaline is the most powerful of drug, and it gives April the ability to wrench herself free of the machine’s control.

April is the product of generations upon generations of cultivated power; tended and nurtured into a super nova waiting to happen. She does not have time, does not have experience, but she has raw determination and hate; and sometimes, that can overpower anything.

The Kraang is connected too deeply already to stop their flow of power, April’s shackles have become it’s as well. April seizes the alien overlord with powers untamed and untrained, and releases all of her rage in one go.

Kraang Prime’s mind overloads as April does so, and their shared mental scream reaches through every ship Kraang Prime had connected with.

Every other Technodrome across the earth implodes on itself, releasing the final mental commands onto the world below.

April, in that moment, was driven by overwhelming desperation and _hatred_ for the Kraang. She wanted them gone, and if that meant humanity had to go as well, then so be it. She has been at the mercy of these monsters for weeks; she doesn’t care about anything other than burning their world down along with her own, if that’s what it takes.

The mutagen released by the alien ships, because of April’s maelstrom of hate and rage, is unstable. It has no clear form to give to the earth, other than to _twist_ and to cause _pain_.

The ships crash to the ground, hundreds of explosions around the world near simultaneously.

They spill their contents onto the unsuspecting populace, and this is truly when the world ends.

April, panting and breathless, but in control of herself for the first time in days; sneers hatefully at the screeching alien in front of her.

April has no fear left in her; they’ve driven it out of her completely.

She has nothing left to lose.

Kraang Prime takes her back with what remains of the fleet, back to the safety of Dimension-X.

The earth is left to suffer, it’s useless to them now; the very ground becoming more tainted by the second. April has ruined their plan, decimated their forces, and there is nothing they can do to fix it.

 

 

 

 

April is taken apart, stripped of everything she is, until she nothing but a convenient tool to bring out when needed.

Inside her broken mind, April screams.

No one hears, and no one comes for her.

 

 

 

 

The earth is polluted, filled with mutagen that forcefully begins a violent evolution of every contaminated creature.

Humanity stands almost no chance, falling from power almost overnight.

The world shrieks and writhes and twists itself into something new, something unforgiving.

It’s the dawn of a broken, unstable era; one that none survive through unchanged.

 

 

 

 

In the wreckage of the once great city, Donnie and Mikey emerge from their hiding.

Everything is different, the very face of their territory warped beyond recognition.

Their green place, gone; turned into a stinking swamp that smells of _wrongness_ so strong, it sends them running. Their many scavenging spots, destroyed or again, covered in something so _wrong_ , they can’t stand to get close.

The underground is no longer safe either, creatures that are not normal creatures, they prowl and stalk and leave trails of destruction behind them. Hulking, or wire thin, or things that are both yet neither. Creatures that walk out from the _wrong_ spots, emerging maddened beyond reason.

Donnie and Mikey leave their home, their home for so many seasons, because something huge and terrifying takes residence in it; too many eyes, wings where they should not be, it is a monster to them, as it is a monster to itself.

In the new and horrifying world, they survive closer to the edge then they ever have before. Always running, always hiding.

Humans are less frequent as time goes by, more and more twisted creatures taking their place. Or, Donnie and Mikey find corpses of humans, torn apart by the creatures, or simply dead from disease and starvation.

They are hungry, so hungry, but there is still enough for them to find; still places inside of abandoned human nests that they can find food to eat.

They survive, even if it is a closer thing than they are used to.

 

 

 

 

 

Somewhere across the city, three mutants run through shadows, and are barely scraping by.

The lair is no longer safe, the tunnels filled with hordes of mutated rats; the complete opposite of Splinter, their bodies bulky, their minds deteriorated into nothing but the urge to _consume_.

They take what supplies they can before the waves of mutants become too many to fend off, and go above ground.

They are exposed, vulnerable to the world’s eyes.

It is a blessing then, that the world is too preoccupied with surviving to notice three extra mutants; ones with clothes and weapons, ones that are intelligent.

Splinter and his sons, they take shelter where they can; hiding in abandoned buildings, skyscrapers emptied of humans, and other such places.

Most of humanity has died off already, either twisted into mutant monsters, or killed in the original wave of destruction from the unknown alien forces. What survives now, in the wreckage of society, is weakened by hunger, and driven by fear.

Leo and Raph, they flounder in the face of their new lives. Gone is the comfort of home, gone is their steady food supplies. They have to scavenge every day, and fight both mutants and humans for those scavengings.

The humans, they attack the brothers on sight; too spooked by the other mutants running rampant to stop and question their intentions. Leo and Raph, they try to avoid conflict with human survivors, but all too often, it comes down to the humans or their family.

Splinter mourns his sons’ loss of innocence so early, barely fifteen and already their blades have tasted blood. He draws his own though, each time a threat comes for his small family. There is little room for mercy in their new lives, something that his sons learn all too quickly.

They survive, on canned goods and bottled water; defending themselves against monsters and men.

 

 

 

 

 

As weeks go by, what remains of humanity begins to organize itself.

Small tribes, clusters of communities, they begin to pop up all around the city; varying in size and strength, as well as personality. Some are brutal, and rule their claimed land with dictatorships. Others are merely gatherings hopeful individuals, looking for safety in numbers. They take the remaining sources of food and fresh water, and defend them fiercely.

No one knows what is happening around the world, New York is now their whole world. And it is a violent world at that, filled with individuals who will do anything to survive.

Including, hiring mutants to protect them.

Splinter had watched his sons grow thin, grow weak with hunger. He himself, he lost weight steadily as their food sources waned. He did what he could, to stretch their supplies, sharing more to his children than to himself.

But eventually, his sons become too hollow eyed for him to stand. They are dying, and there is little choice now for plans of action.

Splinter walks to the border of a less violent human settlement, hood down and ears displayed not with pride, but with what remains of his dignity. Dignity that he is hoping to sell, in exchange for the survival of his sons.

The humans approach him with hostility and fear, pointing what few guns remain functional, and bladed weapons made from scrap. Splinter does not flinch when they fire a warning shot, and tell him to leave while he can.

He speaks, to which they are shocked he can, and he tells them of his proposition.

Trained bodyguards, skilled ninja warriors at their call; for a price. Food, water, warmth. Give him these things, and mutants would no longer plague their borders.

A quick demonstration of his skills, against an unlucky wandering mutant, and they take his services.

Splinter gives up his honor, to become a sell-sword.

His sons eat better than they have in weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

Donnie and Mikey are not so lucky. They have no guardian, they have no faith in humanity; they are alone.

And, they are starving.

Days and days and days, they haven’t eaten their fill in so long. Humans have taken all the fresh water spots, their encampments too terrifying to consider approaching. They stop being able to find food in nests, even as they wander further and further each day searching.

The small animals they would sometimes catch, they are long gone; either eaten by larger creatures, or turned _into_ those larger creatures.

Plant life is sparse, most too dangerous seeming to consider trying. They do not know it, but eventually, the mutated ground will give birth to huge woods, filled with many different types of fruits and nuts. But that is far off at the moment, and they need food _now_.

Donnie and Mikey, they are thin and weak. It is only a matter of time before a creature stronger than them picks them off, and devours their corpses. And if not a creature, then a human will.

They are desperate, they are tired, and they are so hungry.

Being a scavenger is no good when there is nothing to scavenge. As their searches for food continue to yield no result, and the hunger inside their bellies worse, Donnie and Mikey slip below a point they hadn’t known they were above.

It happens during one of their searches for fresh water, following their snouts towards the scent.

They are crawling and darting through the ruins of a huge human nest, when they spot a human male, and his lone female offspring.

She is a juvenile, small and underfed looking, and he is a weakened man; stumbling along with the help of his offspring. Donnie and Mikey can both smell it, the scent of sickness and death coming from the man. He will die soon, from whatever infection has taken root inside him.

They are waiting for the humans to pass by, because they never engage against humans, not unless it is prompted, when the male stumbles.

He falls, his leg giving out, and he drags his offspring down with him. Her knees and palms hit stone rubble, and it pierces through her skin. She bleeds steady drops of red onto the ground, and her _cares-for-small-young’s_ attempts to stop the bleeding; they do not prevent the scent of blood from reaching Donnie and Mikey’s senses.

Mikey catches the tang of salt and warmth and _life_ on his tongue, and Donnie similarly moistens his lips, swallowing thickly.

They are so hungry.

The human girl stands up, helping her ailing parent up as well, and more blood drips free of her hand.

Donnie and Mikey are _so hungry._

They shouldn’t engage, they shouldn’t endanger themselves; they could die if they did, and survival is everything but-

 - they are starving, starving slowly and painfully and the girl-

-she smells like food.

Her parent, too weak to defend himself let alone his offspring. The girl, a juvenile, weak and underfed. They are easy targets.

Donnie and Mikey make a decision they don’t realize, and slip below a point they didn’t know they were above.

They are so hungry.

They will not be hungry for much longer.

The human male is weak, thin and ill and all too easy to over power-

Donnie’s claws tear out the man’s throat.

-and the little girl, small and young and so frail-

Mikey’s large hands snap her neck like nothing.

-and the pair of humans stand no chance.

 

 

 

 

 

They eat their fill, for the first time in too many turns of day to remember. Warmed by nourishment, strengthened by fresh kill; they run at full speed again, and no longer feel winded. They leap and dash and feel alive.

They do not hide from mutants anymore, nor humans. They are strong, they are smart, and they will not be prey for anything now.

Donnie and Mikey, they are no longer scavengers.

They are predators, and they will take what they want.

 

 

 

 

 

A human nest, a new one made from wood and trees, built around a source of water un-poisoned by the _wrong_ that has changed so much of the land.

It is a large source of water, though it is guarded by few humans. They have sticks that blast holes in creatures and other humans, and this is why they hold this water source against interlopers.

However, the humans are not like Donnie and Mikey.

They do not know how to melt into the woods, and make themselves unseen. They do not know how to read the wind, and position themselves so it does not carry their scents. They are not familiar with sneaking in shadows, or moving without a single sound to their steps.

Donnie and Mikey, they are predators, and the humans are their prey.

The sticks that explode and create loud sounds, they are useless if the humans can’t find Donnie and Mikey. Holes litter where the humans _think_ Donnie and Mikey hide, but in truth, the turtles are always three steps ahead, and already poised to kill.

It takes merely three sun rises to pick off enough humans that the remaining ones are driven to leave.

In part of what was once Grand Central Park, Donnie and Mikey make their new nest, and feast for days.

It is _their_ territory now, and they intend to keep it as such.

 

 

 

 

 

Across the city, the older brothers of the broken family, they struggle to not break completely.

Their father, who has outlived so much tragedy in his life, has finally met his end.

Splinter is strong, he is skilled, and he has weapons and knowledge no one else has. But he is also old, aged by the combined DNA of rat and human. Rats are only meant to live for so long, and though Splinter’s humanity prolongs his life, he grows weaker as years go by.

He dies, defending the human encampment that pays him and his sons for their skills. A mutant, an amalgamate really, made from multiple creatures and driven insane by its own existence. It kills him, because Splinter’s old body can no longer keep up with the punishment that he takes nearly every day.

A lucky shot, past his guard, right through his stomach. Leo and Raph are there with him, they see their father fall, and they finish the job for their Sensei.

Splinter bleeds out, wide holes through his torso. His sons are there to hold him close as he does, and their reptile cold bodies absorb the dying heat of their father.

They burn Splinter’s corpse, collect their pay for the day, and receive stilted consolations from humans that hate their existence.

Raph and Leo, they only have each other and their weapons now.

They leave the encampment the next day, because it is too painful to see the faces of ungrateful humans and remember, that their father gave his life for these humans, and yet they show so little gratitude. They take their meager possessions, their final payment of supplies, and go out in search of new work.

It has been two years since the world fell, and the new order is starting to fully settle.

Kill or be killed, the strongest survive, and the clever flourish.

Leo and Raph, they are not the most clever, but they are among the most strong. Their skills make them well known between encampments, and they have no trouble finding work. They continue what their father had done, selling their skills in exchange for another day of life.

They are only seventeen, but they are no longer children.

They are bitter, and they are wary of everything. But this bitterness sharpens their blades, and their wariness cautions them from making mistakes. With the loss of their father, what little was left of their childhood dies with him.

They get close to no one, and let no one close to them.

Humans hate them for what they are, and Leo and Raph; they are inclined to return the favor.

Tense smiles, business politeness, declined handshakes; that is how their deals go. A warm meal, a bed for the night, supplies for the week; that is what they are paid with.

They take what they can get, use it to the best of their abilities, and let their hearts grow indifferent.

They fight constantly, each other’s broken edges scrapping the other raw. They’re harsh with their words, almost more so with their actions. They’re both so angry, so hurt by the loss of their father and their home. They have nothing to take it out on other than each other. It’s always a fight, always struggle for them. But.

They’re all they have anymore. If they leave each other, like they often threaten to, then they’d be left with nothing.

It’s not love anymore, not really, but they are still brothers, still family.

They stay together, Leo and Raph, because if they don’t, then they’d be truly alone.

 

 

 

 

 

Donnie and Mikey, while their brothers crack and grow cold, they get bigger, they get stronger, and they tangle themselves together deeper than previous.

They have land that is their own, steady nourishment, and the safety of a nest.

However hard it had been at first, the new shape their world has taken is wider, and more plentiful than anything they’ve known.

The ground, rich with mutagen, gives life to a great forest. Trees grow tall and thick, plants meshing together to create hardier species, and it turns the whole of the park into a jungle.

This jungle is Mikey and Donnie’s territory, and they are the undisputed rulers of it.

Donnie creates traps, for mutant creatures and humans alike. Most learn to stay far away from their home, but all too often, someone or something wanders in and gets itself caught. The scent of fresh water, the temptations of sweet fruits; so many creatures cannot resist this.

They eat the things they catch, and rarely go to sleep without full bellies.

What wanders in that is undesirable to eat, they drive off, or simply kill. Until…

A human male suddenly appears on the edge of their territory one day, walking straight through it without heed of danger.

Donnie and Mikey, they stalk and skirt the presence of this human. They are nervous, and for the first time in a while, they are extremely hesitant to engage in a fight.

The human carries club weapons, spikes of metal coming off them, and has the skulls of creatures decorating him. His ghastly white mask, made from the bones of something he’s killed, gleams in the sunlight.

He smells like-

Donnie makes the mistake of stepping on a weak branch, and it snaps.

The human’s skull face whips towards them, and though Donnie knows he is hidden, he feels the predatory eyes of the human sweep over him.

Neither Mikey nor Donnie so much as twitch until the human starts moving again, only breathing a sigh of relief once he is out of ear shot.

They do not engage the human, they can’t risk it.

This human male smells like blood, like viciousness, like _death_.

They stay out of sight from him, watching the human make his way through their territory. He kills any creature that he meets, small or large. He does not eat them, like Donnie and Mikey would have expected. He leaves them on the ground, to lie there until they rot away.

Whoever this human is, he is skilled in ways no other humans have been. The skulls he has strapped across his body tell tales of his wins; he does not lose often, if ever.

They have never met a human like this.

This is a killer, an apex predator; maybe on level with them.

The skull masked human wanders through, bringing with him the scent of death, and leaving bodies in his wake.

They shadow this human, watching to see if he tries to settle in their nest. He does not, and seems completely uninterested in the groves of fruits they have. He eats nothing, stops not once the whole journey, and kills everything in his way.

The skull faced human walks through their territory, drinks from a small water source on the edge of it, and then he leaves.

Donnie and Mikey do not see him again, and they do not want to.

Had they attacked... they both feel they would have not gotten away easily, or maybe at all.

 

 

 

 

 

Raph and Leo meet another sell-sword, a year after their father’s death, though he does not call himself that.

Casey Jones, a hunter for hire, kills any mutant he is asked to. His reputation precedes him, and it makes both Leo and Raph wary.

Casey is a violent individual, and has hundreds of brutal killings to his name. He is also infamous for his vicious hatred of mutants, no matter what threat level they present. He kills any and every one he meets, even if they aren’t a part of the job he’s been hired for.

They meet the young, feral seeming human only a few times.

None of the meetings are pleasant.

Casey spits on the ground in front of them, calls them freaks, and warns them that if they ever step out of line, he’ll be right there with a bat for their skulls.

Raph and Leo respond with a combination of fire and ice, that should _Casey_ ever step out of line, he would be down a couple limbs before he could blink.

In another world, the three of them would have been friends, and found comradery through battle.

Here though, they are too embittered by their losses and hardened by their trials to even extend friendship.

Leo and Raph have lost their father for humans that hate them, and witnessed him die. They no longer have a home, and there is none offered to them in this world filled with violence. They have only each other and have long since closed off their hearts to anyone else.

Casey has lost his father and sister, to the first waves of mutants; witnessing their deaths at the hands of monsters. His former home is rubble, burned down by an alien ship’s fire. He has only himself and his hatred; anything else has been buried or lost.

The human and the brothers, they are so similar, but still too different.

They part on bad terms, and do not retract their promises of death.

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes, not often but still, the traps that Donnie sets come up empty for too many days.

And yet, they do not go without fresh meat.

There are many established human nests now, not too close to Donnie and Mikey’s territory, but still close enough.

Close enough to hunt from.

Humans, though they have learned to survive in the new and harsh environment of their changed world, they are still no match for Donnie and Mikey.

It is almost too easy, for them to slip into humans’ territory and take one or so humans back with them.

Maybe before they knew starvation, maybe before they’d been forced to fall so deeply into primal instincts, the cries of terrified humans might have garnered empathy from them.

But the humans they take and kill, their screams have no effect on Donnie and Mikey.

Humans are enemies, humans are prey; nothing more.

Time passes; Donnie and Mikey grow wild and fierce off the blood of slain humans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Too often, Leo and Raph have to fight for what they have rights to.

A right to food, a right to shelter, a right to live.

Humanity is a fickle thing, taking what they need that moment, and discarding it when they no longer have use for it.

Leo and Raph are considered subhuman, and are often treated as such.

Sometimes, humans will try to back out of a deal, try withholding the payments Leo and Raph are promised.

This rarely is a thing that lasts long, because just as humanity is cruel, so are they.

They no longer have room for mercy inside them, not for people and creatures that cross them. When it is needed, Leo and Raph will put more than just mutant blood on their blades.

Sometimes they let the humans live, sometimes they don’t.

It depends how quickly they’re given what they want, what they need.

The world is thick with violence, and even more so with hatred. Leo and Raph, to stay alive, they’ve become similar to their landscape.

It’s been years since they were treated with kindness, given anything resembling affection. Now, they are like their bladed weapons. Cold, sharp, and deadly. Warmth has long since been taken from them, and replaced with stony indifference.

Their time with a home and father to love them, it feels so far off it’s become something of fading dream.

Time passes; Leo and Raph grow harsh and jagged as their lives drag on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One day, an enormous _, intelligent_ mutant wanders into Donnie and Mikey’s territory.

Another reptile, not turtle though, something bigger and... perhaps stronger.

Large and lumbering, but somehow, moving with relative grace through the foliage. Old scars dot the mutant’s scaled flanks, and it seems all the more intimidating for some of those scars sizes. To receive so much damage, and still walk away the victor; this mutant is likely to be even more deadly than the feral human had been.

Donnie and Mikey stalk it, _him_ they realize from his scent, through their territory; looking for chances to either scare him off, or to kill him.

However... when the intruder stops for the night, he does it in a way that shows that he _knows_ they are there, and that he does not mind. Sitting calmly in a small clearing, and taking out a small amount of food from the bag around his neck, the mutant eats docilely as he watches the spots that Donnie and Mikey hide in.

They are suspicious, but the huge reptile continues to not be threatening, and simply sits and eats the dried... food things he has with him. He has done nothing to try and mark the territory as his own, he has not tried to take anything from their traps, and he has not even tried to fend them off, despite becoming purposefully obvious of their presence.

Leatherhead knows they are there, has expected them to be. He has come here on purpose, searching for the infamous pair of mutants; too smart to be captured, too strong to killed. He has seen the traps set in this forest, and knows that to have created such things, there had to be imagination within the so called savage mutants.

He is not hoping for much, but he still hopes.

Eventually, Mikey is too curious to not approach, and so he does. Cautiously entering the clearing, and asking why the creature is here, but not trying to take anything from them.

Leatherhead may speak almost purely English, and have been transformed far from his first self, but he is not so changed that he can't vaguely understand the questioning trills sent his way.

He rumbles the universal words of _hello_ and _friend_ to the two turtles skirting his clearing, and offers them some of his waning rations.

Mikey is predatory, he is wary, but... at his center, he still looks for positive things from others, even if he sees most of them as potential meals.

He takes the food, checking it thoroughly for poison, sits not too too close to Leatherhead, and begins to talk at the huge reptile.

Eventually, Donnie emerges as well, and settles close to Mikey’s side. Donnie is not as trusting as Mikey is, but it has been so long since they encountered someone who didn’t immediately try to kill them.

They are lonely, sometimes it aches in their chests they are so lonely. Leatherhead, as he introduces himself, is quiet and kind. He still smells like a predator, and bears the scars of countless battles, but he makes not a single move to antagonize Donnie and Mikey.

Leatherhead is allowed to stay the night in their territory, so long as he doesn't eat any of their food. He promises, and he doesn't, even if he is famished, and starting to question if he can truly subsist alone on scavenged human food.

Leatherhead stays the next night as well, getting close with Mikey. It is slow going, the talks between them, but sometimes words are not needed to explain things.

Leatherhead stays with the two turtles for a week, resting his weary body and slowly learning the two bright individuals who dwell in this jungle. He talks, and so do they, and while there is rarely understanding of words between them, true understanding is found regardless.

Leatherhead is strong, and that makes him useful for defending the territory against larger mutants. He is also clever, and helps Donnie improve the traps around their nest. Best of all, he is kind; and that is the most novel thing about him.

He stays the next month, and is given a spot inside the turtles’ nest to sleep in. Not long after, mere hours in truth, both Mikey and Donnie are curled next to him.

Leatherhead stays the whole season, and then the next.

He stays.

Donnie and Mikey use him, befriend him, and become family with him.

They feed him, using their hunted prey, or trapped victims.

Leatherhead does not starve any longer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five years since the world was changed irreparably, and Leo and Raph are established well and thoroughly as sell-swords for hire; even if most humans still not-so-subtly call them freaks and monsters behind their backs.

At this point, they no longer care. They take jobs, they get paid, they live another day; simple, routine, and easy, despite the dangers that they face.

Twenty years old, they’ve grown strong despite the razors edge existence they lead. But as they’ve grown strong, they’ve also cut away the softer parts of themselves.

Leo doesn’t laugh for months at a time, and Raph hardly smiles genuinely; for them, both actions have become methods to intimidate, ways to scare their opponents.

Even when it’s just them alone, they have no comfort to offer for each other. Only certainty that they are still alive, still together.

It’s hard, but they get by.

_(They miss their father.)_

After a particularly harsh week, where their supplies was stolen, and they’ve been hiding in the abandoned corpses of buildings for shelter; they get a job offer.

It’s a contract to kill a nest of highly intelligent mutants, ones who've been plaguing the area for years. They will be paid with supplies and water, as well as new medical supplies, and Leo and Raph are in sore need of all those things.

 They take the job, and go into the dense thicket that is the hostile mutant territory.

Leo and Raph have the descriptions of hulking reptiles, possibly frogs as well, to find their targets with. They’ve been given mixed information of numbers; some of the humans claiming there is only one mutant, other saying there are tens of them.

They go in with weapons already drawn, and silently begin combing the closest area for mutants of those descriptions.

Mikey and Donnie are away in the deepest parts of the territory, checking on how their crops of carefully guarded fruits are. Leatherhead however, is wandering through the side where Leo and Raph entered.

It’s a lazy patrol, because few are foolish enough anymore to enter the forest. Leatherhead knows this, is content with the fear that surrounds his adopted home, and takes peace from that fact. Once, he might have thought himself even more monstrous for the acts he has committed, but Donnie and Mikey has won him over. Being full and satisfied is too enjoyable to turn down anymore, even if a diminished part of him feels bad for it.

Leo and Raph, unnoticed by the enormous crocodile man, stalk Leatherhead. He fits the description well, the tale of a huge gator mutant one of the most prominent told to them. If there is more than this solitary mutant, then they will deal with the others later. For now-

Melting out of the trees, descending upon Leatherhead with their weapons glistening in the afternoon light.

-they attack.

Leo and Raph attack without questioning Leatherhead’s intentions too deeply, because they've gotten to the point of killing almost everything _(everyone_ ) on sight.

Its kill or be killed

They’ve learned this, engraved it into their minds.

They’ve got only each other; everyone else is a potential enemy.

Leatherhead fights them, defends himself against them, but Leo and Raph are like honed blades, so much like their weapons now that they _are_ weapons. Weapons to kill, to survive with. They will keep living no matter what, they will survive.

For their father.

_(They miss him so much; miss the safety of having a home, of having food all the time, of being loved._

_There is no love in the world any longer, only fear and death._

_So they hold what good memories they have close to their hearts, and cloak themselves in that fear and death.)_

The battle is short and brutal.

Leatherhead is tough as well as smart, but Leo and Raph dance too fast and deadly to catch. Leatherhead is too big, too slow in comparison to their quick, lithe forms.

Leo’s swords slice through Leatherhead’s back leg, cutting the tendons so deeply the great mutant falls to the ground immediately. Raph sais are stabbed, one after another, through Leatherhead’s wrists; rendering them limp and useless.

Leo uses a rope to tie Leatherhead around his jaws, and then they have him pinned; snaking ropes around the rest of the mutant’s limbs, and trussing him up.

They stand above their captured target, and debate if they should kill him now, or if they should use him as bait for any other mutants nearby. Blood has already been split; it will likely attract any predators in the area. Hopefully, this includes the other targeted mutants.

Leatherhead, lying silent as the two turtles talk, realizes that they are hunters, that they’ve come for Donnie and Mikey’s heads.

There is so little left in the world that is good still, and even the two brothers he has come to care so deeply for, they are not exceptions; so mired in blood that they see no difference anymore. But-

Leatherhead loves them, their bright and twisted hearts the most precious things he knows.

He will not let these other turtles kill them, not while he still breathes.

Leatherhead is brute, _(a monster),_ but he is also smart. The knots that have been tied around his limbs, they are slippery with blood. He knows that if he wants, he can escape from them with the right amount of twisting.

He waits patiently, until the two English speaking turtles are distracted, and then-

He frees himself, ripping parts of his flesh away to do so, and makes one final attempt to save the two turtles that have come to hold him so dearly. He will not let them die, not at the hands of these hunters-

Leo’s swords go through his chest, straight between his ribs and into his heart.

Leatherhead coughs, feels the blood already filling his lungs and throat, and chooses to use his last breath wisely.

He opens his wide jaws, and releases a death bellow that shakes the forest; a warning for _his_ turtles to stay as far as possible from where he is.

Leatherhead falls, and he does not rise again.

Impassively, Leo flicks the blood off his katanas, and turns away from the corpse. That’s one down, who knows how many to go. Raph and Leo start to move away from the clearing, from the strong scent of blood, and discuss what they should do now. Their presence has been revealed, there will be no more surprise to their attacks.

They are nearing the edge of the clearing, still deciding their next plan of action, when a scream splits the air.

The scream is a visceral one, a single long note of pain and rage; of fury and loss.

Mikey’s howl echoes through the whole forest, because he has just lost someone that was as close to his heart as Donnie is.

They only got close enough to hear the final sounds of Leatherhead’s battle, more than close enough to hear the full volume of his last cries. They came too late, and see the corpse of their closest friend discarded like nothing, lying in the clearing as blood pools out from him.

Mikey tears out of the woods, and tackles the murderers that have _dared_ to cross them, to have dared to kill someone so kind and strong and dear to Mikey and Donnie.

Donnie is right beside Mikey, and they engage the two hunters _(the two turtles?)_ with the intent to kill.

_(They feel like they know them, both Mikey and Donnie think._

_But they are blinded with rage and grief, and give no more thought to that feeling. There is only pain and anguish inside them now._

_Any love they could have held had died long before this moment.)_

Leo and Raph, if they had not lived for so long being steadily stripped of innocence and love and any caring emotions, would have paused the fight, would have tried to talk the feral turtles who could be, might be, their long lost siblings.

But they have lived too long with shields around their hearts, and all they see in front of them are hostile, cannibalistic, feral mutants. Their targets, in exchange for another month of life.

They fight.

All four of the brothers, though they don't know this, they tear at one another, inflicting as much damage as they can.

Slashing and tearing, screams from the feral turtles, grim silence from the civilized ones. They are evenly matched, their styles of fighting clashing perfectly as they battle to the death. The ground has drops of blood rained on it, shallow cuts appearing on both sides at they fight.

Donnie gets lucky; he gets a single moment where Raph isn't able to block him.

Donnie’s long arms snake around Raph, and plunge his knife into Raph’s throat. Red sprays from the wound, coating Raph’s front and Donnie’s arms.

For Leatherhead, for Mikey, Donnie kills the interloper.

Raph dies on the grass, ragged breaths wheezing through a torn throat.

Leo watches as his last family member bleeds out, and what good was left in him snaps.

He throws Mikey off him, and dashes at Donnie, wordless rage and grief howling out of him. In that moment, he loses everything except his desire for vengeance, and becomes a pantomime of his feral brothers.

His swords pierce Donnie’s sides, and he takes vicious triumph in ripping them out.

Donnie falls, dead before he even meets the ground, and then it is Mikey who screams.

Leo turns, to defend, to finish the job, but Mikey is already too close, too fast to stop.

Mikey takes a length of steel through his chest, same time as Leo takes a knife through his. Their eyes meet, and in the last seconds they have to live, they glare with every ounce of hatred they have inside them.

They bleed out on each other, tangled together as an echo of their long forgotten childhoods.

All four brothers lie dead on the ground.

There ends their lives

 

 

 

 

 

 

Somewhere, locked within a tank of green, locked inside her own mind, April screams.

She screams and screams and _screams and screams and screamsandscreamsandscreams-_

Until, the Utrom prevail in destroying the Kraang Empire.

 April screams endlessly within her own mental prison, until mercy is given, and she is unplugged from the machines keeping her alive in this hell.

She dies, finally, but long after she has any self left to feel relief for it.

She does not let out a last breath, because she has long since been removed of her lungs.

She simply stops, and that is her end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The universe treks on, sparing no pity for these souls.

In another timeline though, four brothers reunite, and begin down the path to saving the world.

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_End._

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> SO.  
> I'M NOT GOING TO LIE, I'M A LITTLE (LOT) MESSED UP AS AN INDIVIDUAL.
> 
> I'M MOSTLY SORRY??? EXCEPT NOT REALLY. 
> 
> Originally actually, this idea came from the topic of whether or not the feral kids would eat a human. It... kinda spiraled from there? I was talked out of actually adding the concept to canon, since eventually I did see that it would be too dark, and my friend Ivy was like. Legitamentally disturbed by the idea of it. (Oh Ivy, you're so pure compared to me.)
> 
> But... I couldn't let it go. It was too exciting an idea to do so.
> 
> After a conversation with my partner about the topic, and they are just as dark as I am about this sort of thing, we decided a one-shot simply Had to be written. Doomed timelines are my actual fucking jam, you don't even understand how much I love them.
> 
> Hence the creation of this fiction.  
> I wrote it because A) I love going as dark as possible with something, and B) it was just really enjoyable for me.  
> Hope I didn't disturb people Too badly; but I did add warning tags, so really, if you read this and it wasn't your cup of tea, it's your own fault.  
> We'll be back to the Much lighter universe of Division Difference very soon here, and I'm sure that will soothe any destroyed feelings that came from this.
> 
> If you were wrecked emotionally by this, were horrified by this, or you know, are like me and dig this sort of thing, leave a comment saying so! I'd love some feedback on my pure Tragedy™ writing right here, its been a while since I indulged in my preference for it.
> 
> Till next update then. (☞ﾟ∀ﾟ)☞


End file.
